A brand new feature on Chicklitreviews.com is Cover Stories! We have noticed that book covers are a huge part of a books appeal whether we like to admit it or not, and the age old adage “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is less relevant now than it has ever been! Therefore, we’ve taken it upon ourselves for this new feature to quiz a whole lot of chick lit authors, some who have been around the genre for a good few years, some debut authors, about the importance of their book covers, and what they mean to them. We hope you like the feature!

This week debut novelist Ali McNamara is telling us all about her wonderful cover for From Notting Hill With Love… Actually which is released on 25th November. It’s a stunning book - one of my favourites of the year in fact! - and the cover truly is something special, so here’s Ali to tell you all about it…

I love the cover of my novel ‘From Notting Hill with Love…Actually.’

I had no idea just what the design team at Little, Brown would come up with for my book. As a debut author I wasn’t consulted on the cover design, I was just praying it was not yellow or orange - my two least favourite colours! But when I saw the finished article for the first time I was speechless – most unusual for me! I adore it and think they’ve done a brilliant job.

The cover features the Coronet cinema in Notting Hill Gate (the same one in the movie Notting Hill where Hugh Grant has to watch a movie with Julia Roberts in his diving goggles), and then in the foreground a couple messing about with a bag of popcorn. I like the way the couple are posed to look very much like Mark and Bridget in the final scene of Bridget Jones’ Diary. I like to think this is deliberate as this is one of the many movies that feature in the novel.

The back cover shows a silhouette of a couple sitting in the back row of a cinema, again eating popcorn! Movies are a big theme of the book as you can tell by the title and all the popcorn references. The only thing I asked to be changed when I saw the proof cover for the first time was the original girl on the front cover had red hair, when my main character, Scarlett has black hair because she’s named after Scarlett O’Hara from the Hollywood classic Gone with the Wind.

Even the title is in keeping with the novel, both on the cover and on the spine. It’s black and red - the colours of the London street signs, which is where most of the story takes place. Although the characters do venture across to Paris at one point and have some interesting encounters with some rather iconic film stars there…

So how do I feel about the cover of my debut novel?

I totally love it…actually.

Thanks Ali!

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